System Lockup After Several Days

[cncb]

I have a troubling problem that I can't identify. My SageTV server ocassionally locks up after several days (>3) of running smoothly. I thought maybe there was a hardware/driver issue with my XP MCE PC so I rebuilt an entirely new PC with Vista and all new hardware except for the recording hard drive. But, the problem still persists.

It seems to happen when Sage is recording something. I did the usual set of CPU and memory stress tests to make sure that is all good. I did a full scan/test of the recording hard drive and everything appears to be fine. I shut off real-time scanning of the recording drive in AVG (it was on in the old PC) but I don't know if that could cause a lockup.

I'm hoping it isn't Sage that is causing this but I really don't know. Are there any system log files in Vista that might give me a clue? Any other suggestions? Thanks.

[cncb]

Crap. This just happened yet again. This time no recordings were in progress but I was using the HD100 when it happened (again). Is there some kind of Sage log that might tell me something?

Again, the only the hardware that is the same between my old server (that exhibited the same problem) and the new one is the recording hard drive which seems to be ok. I am using EventGhost and Sage so I guess either of these might be causing the problem. I am using a different ATI card but maybe the ATI drivers are a problem even though this is now Vista versus XP?

I'm at a loss to troubleshoot this. I really don't want to resort to using VMC but I of course need something reliable. Any suggestions?

[Brent]

Craig, have you checked the log for any signs of the cause? Checked the system reports? Submitted a ticket to SageTV support?

Any chance that the recording drive is going bad?

[cncb]

Originally Posted by Brent

Craig, have you checked the log for any signs of the cause? Checked the system reports? Submitted a ticket to SageTV support?

Any chance that the recording drive is going bad?

Brent, I'm pretty sure the drive is fine. I did a full test/scan with "Seagate Tools" and it did not find any problems.

Do you know of any particular log files that would be worth checking? Is there one for Sage? I didn't submit a ticket yet because I don't have much information to give them. Thanks.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by cncb

Brent, I'm pretty sure the drive is fine. I did a full test/scan with "Seagate Tools" and it did not find any problems.

Do you know of any particular log files that would be worth checking? Is there one for Sage? I didn't submit a ticket yet because I don't have much information to give them. Thanks.

There's a FAQ on enabling logging it give a lot of information - hopefully can help you narrow down the problem. And you should definitely submit a ticket when it happens again.

Enable logging.
As soon as it happens again save that log and submit a support request.

I recently went through several months of a very difficult to nail-down problem on my sagetv server. First cause was a bad recording drive (it didn't show up as a problem when I ran the "drive diagnostics tool" the first few times but later on began to show signs of problems.

Then I thought I had everything worked out and guess what? My motherboard began to fail - and eventually did fail. It was a very painful process, but SageTV support was really good about working with me on it.

Never hurts to post here about it as well in case someone on the forums might be able to help also.

[gtdave]

My server has been doing the same thing since I upgraded to the latest version of Sage. The actual server PC still works (Windows doesn't lock up or BSOD) but I can't close Sage and can't kill the process with Task Manager. I have to reboot Windows to get Sage running again...suboptimal.

I'm also running the latest version of SageMC...wonder if that has something to do with it...

Dave

[tmiranda]

Some of us are experiencing this and attributing it to a memory leak. I personally have to reboot Sage every night since upgrading to 6.4 or it locks up after about 3 days.

Try monitoring Sage's memory usage to see if it keeps growing.

[cncb]

I don't want to jinx myself but it appears my problem was caused by EventGhost. I uninstalled this and I haven't had any lockups for 7+ days between reboots.

[gtdave]

Yep, it's growing...been watching it for a couple of days and it went from 320MB to 336MB to 350MB. I'll check it during the day when I know it's not recording to see if it goes back down.

Has anyone submitted an official bug report or support ticket?

Dave

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Some of us are experiencing this and attributing it to a memory leak. I personally have to reboot Sage every night since upgrading to 6.4 or it locks up after about 3 days.

Try monitoring Sage's memory usage to see if it keeps growing.

[Ian]

I am experiencing the same issues with memory leakage and lockups after 3+ days.
I increased the java heap size to 512 but I can just watch the java memory usage get eaten up over 3 days time. It starts off using something like 109/130 Mb as seen in SageMC settings, then gradually increases until big bada-boom.

PC is Windows Home Server, I have 4GB RAM and a Core2 Duo dual core proc.
I strictly use HD100 clients, I only am using 3 max right now, usually only 2 at the same time.

I have observed the crash 3 times now and it's repeatable. In the system event log for WHS the crash shows up as a lack of page buffer pool and then it warns that it can't read or write to the registry and then locks up.

I am using the latest SageTV version and latest SageMC and latest firmware on HD-PVRs and HD100s.

The good part is it's not a sudden crash so I can work around it.
I rebooted this morning so I will begin a logfile and hopefully have some data for support in the next 3 days.